Princess Christina’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara

Happy Birthday of Princess Christina of Sweden, Mrs Magnuson who turns 80 today! The youngest ‘Haga Princess’ who once served as ‘First Lady’ of the Swedish Court for her grandfather and brother, Princess Christina wore several spectacular Royal Heirlooms but only possessed one Tiara, which was stolen over a decade ago and thrown into the Baltic Sea!

A small delicate Tiara composed of seed pearls and diamonds this piece was made by the jeweller Ribbhagen for Queen Sofia of Sweden, who left it to her daughter-in-law, Princess Ebba Bernadotte, in 1913 and it then passed on to her daughter, Countess Elsa Cedergren, in 1946.

Countess Elsa Cedergren was the godmother of Princess Christina and while she lived to the age of 103 when she passed away in 1996, she seems to have given Queen Sofia’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara to Princess Christina around the time of her 21st Birthday in 1964, as it was likely worn for the Wedding Ball of her two sisters, Princess Margaretha and Princess Désirée of Sweden, at the Royal Palace of Stockholm before being worn for the Nobel Prize Ceremony that December as well as at the Wedding Ball of Prince Karl of Hesse and Countess Yvonne Szapary von Muraszombath Széchysziget und Szapár in 1966. All of the Haga Princesses had received a personal Tiara by that year, with Princess Margaretha receiving the Aquamarine Kokoshnik Tiara from her mother, Princess Birgitta getting the Pearl Circle Tiara from her grandfather, and Princess Desiree receiving Queen Louise’s Diamond Tiara from their grandmother.

While her three other sisters mostly retired from Royal Duties after their marriages, Princess Christina, who served as ‘First Lady’ of the Swedish Court for her grandfather and brother between 1972 and 1976, has been a regular presence at royal events through the reign of her brother, wearing the Tiara on several occasions at the Nobel Prize Ceremonies, like the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1972, and on other royal occasions including for the Spanish State Visit to Sweden in 1979 and the the Wedding of her niece, Baroness Christina Silfverschiöld, and Baron Hans De Geer af Finspång in 1998.

Princess Christina continued to wear Queen Sofia’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara for the Nobel Prize Ceremony through the 2000s, usually alternating with a Tiara for the Family Collection on the following evening for the King’s Dinner for Nobel Laureates. The final two appearances of the Pearl and Diamond Tiara came at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 2010, with the Tiara unusually worn again the following evening for the King’s Dinner.

In April 2012, a 19-year-old friend and houseguest of Princess Christina and her husband got access into the safe in their apartment and stole four pieces of heirloom jewellery; an aquamarine ring from her great-grandmother, the Duchess of Albany, a diamond ring from her mother, Princess Sibylla, a pair of gold cufflinks inherited from her grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, and a bracelet given by Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, which he sold to drug dealers. The following month, on the 18th of May, he again accessed the safe and stole the Tiara during a party while Princess Christina took guests on a guided tour of the Royal Palace across the street. The thief tearfully confessed and stated that on the way from the apartment, he stopped on the Riksbron (the State Bridge) in Stockholm and threw the Tiara into the water. Divers were unsuccessful in their search and the Tiara remains lost to history.